For Taj Gibson, the struggle is real. (USATSI)
Bulls forward Taj Gibson isn't happy with the fact he's probably headed back to the bench this season after the Bulls' acquisition of Pau Gasol, according to a report from CSN Chicago.
Privately, Gibson isn't too thrilled with the prospect of continuing to be a reserve, according to multiple people familiar with the situation, but the upbeat, team-first player values winning and chemistry too much to make it an issue or distraction. Furthermore, being an underdog his entire basketball career, it could serve as motivation and help him thrive, building upon last year's bounce-back campaign and improvement as a scorer, which came after a disappointing, injury-riddled season immediately following a long-term contract extension with the Bulls on Halloween 2012.
Gibson's not going to make a thing out of it, that's not what he does. But Gibson's yet another example of "how far can the Bulls push a guy." They drafted him, wouldn't start him, signed him at a discount he gave to be part of a winning team, wouldn't start him, then signed an aging guy to be the upgrade at his position and drafted a shooting forward.
And yet, Gibson will go back and play nice because he really is committed to doing the right thing. The only complaints you'll hear out of Gibson about this were the ones leaked to CSN Chicago. After that, he'll be back to his mild-mannered self. But at the same time, Gibson should be more up front. He's produced in a big way for Chicago. It is more than reasonable to ask for some respect from his coaches and the organization.
Then again, this may not be an issue given how many injury issues an aging Pau Gasol has had over the years.
Basketball Hot News
Hawks’ Budenholzer adjusting to coach/GM role, had mentor for many years in Popovich
Mike Budenholzer came to Atlanta to be a head coach, after passing on other chances, because he had worked with general manager Danny Ferry in San Antonio and thought they could build a Spurs East kind of organization.
Then Ferry shot himself in the foot, being at the very least careless and unthinking with a bigoted comment in a scouting report, something he paraphrased close to verbatim in a conference call with ownership. Make no mistake, whatever was in the report Ferry screwed up. That is why he is now on leave from the team (and may not return, depending on the new owner coming in).
That leaves Budenholzer doing both jobs, coach and GM. It’s not what he signed up for.
Fortunately for him he had a mentor — Gregg Popovich has had both roles at San Antonio and Budenholzer was his assistant for nearly two decades. Budenholzer also learned from Spurs GM R.C. Buford, who works hand-in-hand with Popovich, and the Hawks coach told Steve Aschburner of NBA.com that prepared him for this job as much as anything.
“There are extra things you have to do to prepare for camp and the season,” Budenholzer acknowledged. “But we’ve got a great group. So there’s more work but I think we can manage it. The team, for the most part, is in place. That’s the most important thing….
“It’s something where I spent 19 years in that kind of a set-up,” he said. “To whatever degree I can be comfortable, I wouldn’t feel that now if I hadn’t spent all those years around that in San Antonio with Pop and R.C.”
Budenholzer’s situation is different from Popovich — or Doc Rivers, Stan Van Gundy and Flip Saunders, the other NBA guys with both jobs — in that his is temporary. The Hawks were thrown into this front office mess with the release of Ferry’s audiotape and now the future direction of the Hawks organization will fall to a new owner coming in once Bruce Levenson sells his share of the team (part of a different race-related scandal in the Hawks organization).
That new owner likely brings in a new team president/GM quickly — a guy who will not have hired Budenholzer and may view organization or how to build the team differently. A guy who might want his own guy in the coach’s seat.
But for now, lifting the Hawks beyond the “they’re okay” status the franchise has lived in for seemingly many years falls all on Budenholzer. Ready or not.
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